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]]>Tiziano Reporter, Yusuf Azad Gülsever, reports on the life of an overworked technician in Diyarbakir, Turkey.
]]>Tiziano Reporter, Nurdan Eyigun, introduces us to a young entrepreneur in Diyarbakir, Turkey.
]]>Tiziano Reporter, Ertürk Altun, takes us into the life of a shoe repair master in Diyarbakir, Turkey.
]]>"After a challenging deliberation and assessing the difficult situation of the country I am extremely happy to appoint Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed as the prime minster of Somalia," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the country's president, said as he sat beside the new prime minister in a press conference held in the presidential palace.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a former U.S. embassy staff member in Somalia who also worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation, was appointed to the position and has pledged to form a new cabinet next week.
"Thank you Mr. President for appointing me the Prime Minster of Somalia, I shall form an effective cabinet soon to serve the country," the new premier said.
Mr. Mohamed holds an M.A. and graduated from the Buffalo University in the United States in 1993. He is expected to improve the functioning of the weak Somali government.
Mohamed is perceived as a clean-living man who is an outsider from Somalia's politics.
The horn of Africa nation has been without a central government since 1991 when clan militias and warlords overthrew the dictatorial regime of Siad Barre plunging the nation into 20 years of anarchy and violence.
]]>"After considering the insecurity and political turmoil in the country I have decided to resign from my position as the prime minister of Somalia," Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, flanked by Somalia's president, told reporters last Tuesday after he submitted his resignation letter to the president.
"I am not able to work with the president, so today is the end of my tenure," he separately told lawmakers in the presidential palace.
Sharmarke, a dual Canadian and Somali citizen, had already come under pressure on security issues after rebel militants inflicted huge losses to the government and also on his management of aid money.
He was also accused of neglecting his duties and excessive foreign travel.
The latest rifts between the two leaders began after the president rejected the prime minister's proposal for a new draft constitution insisting that it go instead to the parliament for referendum.
"Sharmarke has gone and things will not change in the future," Abdullahi Hassan, a Somali political analyst at Mogadishu University told The Tiziano Project.
"We have experienced rifts between the past governments' presidents and their prime ministers and nothing has changed when the prime ministers resigned, so regarding this new event it's just another back and forth in the government and encouragement to the rebels," he added.
The horn of Africa nation has been without a central government since 1991 when clan militias and warlords overthrew the dictatorial regime of Siad Barre and then turned on each other plunging the nation into violence for more than 20 years.
]]>What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Mohamed Ghelle, I come from the Mudug region in central Somalia
What did you do during the battle against the Americans?
I was one of the fighters who defeated the Americans, I was a commander for one of the units who firmly fought the Americans. It was a great experience for me to fight them because I understand how their tactics and soldiers are. I was wounded by an aircraft one day when they fired a missile near our trench but some of our soldiers who were in a nearby trench shot down the aircraft and burnt it. They were fighting hard like Ethiopians in 1977, but Americans get thirsty sooner and suffer more then the tough Ethiopians. Also, Americans can be heard by their enemies when they are chatting. They always shout when one is injured and that informs their enemies where they are.
Why did you fight?
Why I fought was because Americans wanted to colonize and bully us, so as a freedom fighter I could not tolerate that since no one wants colonization for his country.
Are your children soldiers? How does this make you feel?
No, my children are not soldiers, they are students and I don't want them to be soldiers now, but yes if colonization comes.
If you could talk to an American veteran who fought against you what would you say?
If I would speak to an American veteran who fought against us I would say to him, what is the experience you have gotten from war in Somalia? Would you like to come again to Somalia? What was your worst day of fighting? What was the best custom you have learned in Somalia? What was your plan to colonize Somalia after we defeated the British colonial forces? Are you ready for a friendship and a way to return to Somalia without using a gun and misguided politics? I would say to you, Americans are good people and compassionate people but the cheating politics of your government leads to the targeting of your citizens. So stop that crazy idea.
]]>The first bomb was placed in a car carrying people who posed as passengers and infiltrated the airport while a second bomber rammed the gate.
"I have seen 5 civilians and one police officer dead on the ground after the blast." Burhan Ali, the deputy director of Mogadishu airport, told The Tiziano Project.
"Pieces of human were strewn over the whole scene, It was shocking," he added.
Witnesses reported that gunmen emerged from behind a car that crossed behind the gate and started firing at peacekeepers as the second bomber blew himself up.
"Two AMISOM Soldiers died and 3 others were wounded during this attack." Major Barigye Ba-hoku, the spokesman for AU peacekeepers in Mogadishu, told The Tiziano Project.
"Two suicide bombers, dressed in government combat uniforms, ran from the vehicles firing small arms. Both managed to run through the gates under fire from AMISOM soldiers. Both were brought to a halt within 200 meters of the terminal building where they detonated their IED vests," he added.
Somalia's extremist insurgent group Al-Shabaab has claimed the responsibility for the attack.
"Our skilled commandos have carried out those attacks successfully." Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, Al-Shabaab's spokesman, told reporters after the blasts.
"We have targeted an anti Mujahideen meeting by the so-called African Union and other Christians," he added.
It was the first suicide attack on the airport since one last September that killed 9 people including Major General Juvenal Niyonguruza, deputy commander of the AU peacekeeping force.
Somalia has been without government since 1991 after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted from power by clan militias who later warred with each other.
What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Yusuf Abdinur. I come from the Bari region in northeastern Somalia.
How many grandchildren do you have? How old are they? What do they do?
I have 15 grandchildren, the oldest one is 30 and the youngest is two months old. The grown-up ones do different jobs, three of them are soldiers, two are preachers, five are masons, and two are clerks for a doctor and a Kenyan MP.
Can you describe something wise you learned from your grandfather?
The most memorable and wise idiom I learned from my grandfather was that the pen is mightier than the sword. I have learned this in action and experience in terms of the current situation of Somalia.
How has being a grandfather changed in the past year?
Being a grandfather has changed just like the country has changed because we have experienced grandchildren ignoring their grandfather's words by killing people, joining in the fighting, or dropping out school and taking arms.
If you could talk to a grandfather in New York what would you ask?
If I could talk to a grandfather in New York I would ask: to what extent do your grandchildren accept your words? How do you deal with some of your children committing suicide when they fail exams or see their lives messed up? Do you want your grandchildren to be soldiers? Could you imagine your grandchildren dying for wrong beliefs rather than their country?
]]>What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Ali Hussein, I come from the town of Jowhar 90km north of Mogadishu.
How many family members are currently with you and who are they?
My nine children and my wife are with me in this refugee camp called Siliga.
How did you get your last meal?
My life always depends on the few pennies we earn on rare days. We don't get a meal everyday, but the days we miss getting something to eat the neighboring refugees will share with us.
How has your life changed in the past year?
My life has become very bad in the past year because most of the workplaces and markets have turned into ghost towns or been abandoned because of the fighting and killings.
If you could talk to an immigrant in New York what would you ask?
If I could talk to an immigrant in New York I would ask him how he earns his living and the type of houses they live in compared to our makeshift huts. I would also ask him why he fled his country if it's peaceful.
]]>In 1991, many Kurds felt U.S. President George H.W. Bush had abandoned them to violence at the hands of the Baath regime during the first Gulf War. They hoped his son would finish the job while presenting the Kurdish people with the independence for which they had long yearned.
By 2003, the Kurds had enjoyed more than a decade of semi-autonomy from the central Iraqi government, a period pockmarked with internecine struggles for control between the two main Kurdish political parties.
As the war drums began to thump in Washington, Kurdish leaders met to plot their role in a new Iraq.
Initially, the United States envisioned a major role for Turkey in the allied invasion - a partnership that would have limited any Kurdish role in the transition.
But in the months before the war, the Turkish parliament rebuffed the United States, voting against direct involvement in the offensive. With this development, the role of Iraqi Kurdistan and its force of peshmerga fighters increased in importance.
As the tanks rolled north from Kuwait toward Baghdad in March 2003, some Kurdish families acted on their memories of past Iraqi wars. They fled the cities for fear of a crackdown from the Sunni-led central government.
Far fewer fled than during the 1991 Kurdish uprising when 1.5 million Kurds made their way to the borders of Turkey in Iran. For those who did abandon the cities, their exodus was short-lived.
On March 26, more than 1,000 American paratroopers landed at an airbase near the resort town of Shaqlawa to open a northern front in the nascent war.
On April 11, Kirkuk fell to Kurdish peshmerga fighters. The city is home to an ethnic mix of Kurds and Arabs.
When the fleeing Kurds returned home, it was to a new reality. The Kurdish people now played a major role as power broker in the region. A Kurd, Jalal Talabani, took over as president of Iraq and it became clear that any coalition government would have to take Kurdish interests into account.
Both Kurdish and Arabic became the official languages Iraq as the Kurdish leaders gained concessions on the application of Islamic law in the country.
Today, the largest political issue facing the Kurds is the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which requires a vote to determine the future of Kirkuk as well as the oil wealth surrounding it.
Kirkuk was central to Hussein's policy of arabization as thousands upon thousands of Kurds left the city over the course of two decades. Since 2003, many have returned.
The plebiscite will determine whether Kirkuk has become sufficiently Kurdish to be considered a part of the autonomous Kurdish regional governement.